Lu Ban 魯班（1）

LuBan (Gong Shu Ban 公輸班) was the most celebrated carpenter/engineer in ancient China. He was born around 507 BCE in the State of Lu 魯國 during the Spring Autumn Era 春秋時代. He wrote a book titled Lu Ban Jing 魯班經. In this book, he explained how different forms including houses, windows and doors, and furnitures can affect the occupants. This probably is the earliest Feng Shui book for houses.

The instrument he used in designing and building houses was a L-shaped ruler. Carpenters and builders later all used this instrument which is known as Lu Ban Che 魯班尺.

                                                                   Lu Ban Che 魯班尺


The length of the ruler is 1 che 尺 4 cun 寸 4 fen 分 divided into 8 subdivisions labeled with eight meaningful words. The length of the ruler is approximately equivalent to 46 cm. The Che 尺 used during Ming/Qing 明/清 Dynasties was 32 cm. LuBan Che is 1.44 Che and therefore 32 x 1.44 = 46.08 cm. This matches the LuBan Che in Imperial Palace Museum in Beijign.

The four divisions labeled Cai 財, Yi 義, Guan 官 and Ji 吉 are auspicious. The four divisions labeled Bing 病, Li 離, Jie 劫 and Hai 害 are inauspicious.

According to the book "Lu Ban Cun Bai Ji 魯班寸白集":

財者財帛榮昌          病者災病難免
離者主人分張          義者主產孝子
官者主生貴子          劫者主禍妨蔴
害者主被盜侵          吉者主家興崇

Wealth indicates money and prosperity. Sickness indicates inevitable sillness and calamity.
Separation indicates severence of people. Righteousness indicates birth of filial son.
Officer indicates birth of noble son. Robbery indicates misfortune from all directions.
Harm indicates being robbed. Fortune indicates fame and fortune arriving at the family.

How was the ruler designed? Was it just according to the average size of the people in those days in China? Were comfort and beauty the main concern?

JY

Life is a Chaotic System

Chaotic behaviour that is highly sensitive to initial conditions defines chaotic systems. The behaviour is popularly called butterfly effect. Small variations in initial conditions can produce huge difference in events that come after. This makes such systems unpredictable. The weather, the economy, and outcomes contributed by human activities belong to such systems. However, we can create mathematical models to give a probability oriented picture of such systems to predict what we are likely to encounter and hence what measures can be taken for the most desirable outcome.

Our life is not written on the rocks. The path of life is wide and there are many crossroads. A split second decision will determine the days after. The difference, sometimes, can be heaven and hell. An astrologer’s job is not to tell accurately what his client will be 10 years later. His job is to tell his client there is an important decision to be made during a certain year and to give proper advice what to consider when making such a decision. To make the right choice will help him live a much better life. The job of an astrologer is to help people do the right thing at the right time to achieve the best results.

A life-reading system is a mathematical model to give a probability oriented picture of a person's life based on his birth data. The quality of the system lies on the philosophy behind building the model. Such quality is not measured by scientific discipline but by the wholeness of wise thinking. The song is of natural beauty but it needs a good singer to bring out the beauty.

How do we know whether an astrologer is giving a good advice? You cannot live twice to test this. Perhaps we have to rely on the old wisdom: “You get what you deserve!” What you deserve to have is not according to what you are born with but how you have been doing.

JY

Yin and Yang balance???

The landscaping of this house is funny. It looks like a tomb in front of a house.

Confidence vs Conceitedness

To have confidence is a must for success. To be conceited paves the way to failure. To brag about how good one's knowledge / skill is to such an extent that it becomes a joke is good reason to lose credibility.

An old Feng Shui master claims to be the best in 600 years. His disciple, after learning from him for a short while, openly claims he has outdone his master.

This is ample proof that a disciple is a duplicate of his master. You can learn to be a joker only from a joker.

JY

Feng Shui Secrets

In the last paragraph of Tian Yu Jing 天玉經, it is mentioned：

更有收山出煞訣，亦兼為汝說。

In addition, there is the code of "Receiving Mountain Expelling Sha". I should tell you this as well.

The secret code was not explicitly written down. For over a thousand years Feng Shui masters have been telling people that you can never get the Feng Shui secrets reading books. The secret codes have been passed down from master to disciple and most of the time it was done just before the master died. What are these secret codes? Were they given to, say, Great Grand Master Yang Yun Song by a visiting alien?

History has recorded that during a rebellion against the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xi Zong 僖宗 deserted the imperial palace and fled from the rebels. Yang Yun Song was an officer in charge of Ling Tai Di Li Shi 靈台地理事 - matters of Spiritual Realm and Land Rationality (Divination and Feng Shui). He went away with the books collected in the imperial palace and lived as a hermit in Kun Lun Shan 昆崙山. He studied the books and left the mountain practicing Feng Shui in the province of Jiang Xi 江西. He offered Feng Shui advice to poor people and they improved their lives tremendously. At that time, only the very wealthy people could afford the services of Feng Shui masters. He was honoured as Yang Jiu Pin 楊救貧 - Yang Saving the Poor. He recruited a handful of disciples and probably Tian Yu Jing was among a few books compiled by his disciples according to his teaching.

It was common practice of the rich and powerful people to acquire a piece of land with good Feng Shui by all means, including unethical or even illegal methods. Therefore, Yang Yun Song warned his disciples that they should help only people who were worthy of the land.

Feng Shui books were not written to provide spoon-feeding information. They were written to provide insightful information leading to knowledge. To people who study with their brains, the knowledge is there. To people who read with their eyes only, confusion is there. 

Well then, where is the secret code of "Receiving Mountain Expelling Sha"? Feng Shui masters in the past told people that this code was only passed down verbally to disciples who deserved the knowledge. Sometimes, it means there is a price attached to show you are worthy. For a high price, you end up getting a fake code and I have seen a lot of such.

As I said, the written words were only given verbally by Yang Yun Song to his disciples. He did not write it down himself. The word "Shan 山" could have been erroneously taken in place of the word "Sheng 生". You don't need further annotation if the code is "收生出煞" - receiving Sheng (Qi) and expelling Sha (Qi). This will wind up as the most important principle of Feng Shui practices.

JY

Cultivating Virtue

The conclusion of Tian Yu Jing 天玉經 emphasizes on virtue:

若還求地不種德   穩口深藏舌

If people only want fortunate site ignoring cultivating virtue, then keep your mouth tight with your tongue well hidden.

This refers to selection of virtuous clients but more importantly virtuous disciples.

I have seen people using Feng Shui with an intention to capture fame and fortune from neighbours. I have also seen master and disciple bitterly and openly attacking each other and the cause is also fame and fortune. If these people really possess good Feng Shui knowledge, they would have been enjoying all the benefits of good Feng Shui. Action speaks louder than words. No matter what the wild claims may be, their action brutally tears the mask off to show the true colours.

JY

Five Arts 五術

The five arts are Shan 山(mountain), Yi 醫(medicine), Ming
命(destiny reading), Bu 卜(divination), and Xiang 相(reading
from appearance).

Shan is, in general, spiritual study and training. In
the old days in China, people became hermits living in
the mountains to receive this kind of training or to
self-train alone, totally detached from the outside
world.

It usually includes studying Daoist books like Lao Zi 老子
and Zhuang Zi 莊子 as the first stage. Practicing breathing
exercise (Qi Gong 氣功) and martial arts (Wu Shu 武術) will be the next
step. The third step is the practice of using
talisman (Fu 符), chanting (Zhou 咒) and creating alchemical pills (Dan 丹) for
longevity (Chang Sheng Bu Lao 長生不老).

Yi is the practice of medical treatment. It involves
internal medicine using herbs and accupuncture.

Ming is to study destiny based on the birth data of a
person. It includes Five Star Astrology, Qi Zheng Si
Yu, Zi Ping Ba Zi, and Zi Wei Dou Shu.

Bu is using the Yijing or other forms of communicating
with Heaven to know the picture of happenings in the
future. The earliest form of Feng Shui studies is
called Bu Zhai - assessment of a house by divination.
Later this developed into a special branch called Feng
Shui.

Xiang includes Face Reading, Palmistry and Bone
Feeling (telling by touching the bones).

All the five arts are inter-related. It is not easy to
have a thorough training in all the five arts. It is
enough to have a rough idea of all but specialize in
one or two areas.

JY